Conan O'Brien was banned from putting clothes on a giant Oscar statue.

The 61-year-old comic hosted the Academy Awards earlier this month and while he had a great time, he revealed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts + Sciences and telecast producers had some strict rules that "blew [his] mind".

Speaking on his 'Conan Needs a Friend' podcast, he said: "They're very serious about certain things. There was a giant Oscar statue, and I shot something with it. It was really fun."

He explained an idea that would have seen him and the statue sharing an apartment as a warring couple but it was quickly quashed.

He said: "We're fighting about things couples fight about. At one point, I thought, oh, this would be really great if the Oscar was just on the couch.

"Let's lay it on a really big couch. And I'll be vacuuming and say, 'Could you at least lift your feet or could you at least get up and help load the dishwasher?'

"We wanted to do it, and they just said, 'No, no, no, that can't happen.'

"One of the people from the Academy came forward and said, 'Oscar can never be horizontal.'

"And that blew my mind. Like, wow, this is like the thigh bone of St. Peter. This is a religious icon."

Conan and his Oscars head writer Mike Sweeney were also keen to put an apron on the 9ft statue to depict it as a housewife.

However, the Academy told them: "No clothing on Oscar. Oscar is always naked."

Conan noted: "I don't fault them, it's just this is what they do. The Oscar, the image of Oscar, is very important to them."

The opening of the ceremony saw Conan spoof Demi Moore in 'The Substance' but he revealed a much longer opening that would have mocked all the Best Picture nominees was scrapped.

He explained: "It was the idea that, 'Oh, Conan's now going to goof on all the movies.'

"It starts with me and I'm in 'Wicked' and I'm all green, finishing 'Defying Gravity' or one of those songs. I finish it, and then you cut to the next thing, which is 'Gladiator II', and 'clang, clang, clang,' with swords, and you see that I'm a gladiator, but then you notice that I'm still green. And then you go on to Conclave and you see people voting with their ballots and one of the hands is still green.

The skit would have continued with moments from 'Dune 2' and 'Nosferatu' and the actors being surprised Conan was still green.

He added: "The whole thing was that the dye wouldn't come off and we had to shoot it in one day."

But they realised the idea was complicated and would have required too many set-ups.